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A challenge to the UMK3 players of TYM

PND_Ketchup

"More deadly than the dawn"
Hey guys!

I thought it would be fun to put together a little challenge for those that still play UMK3 from time to time. This isn't about playing human players, far from it. It's about showing the Arcade Mode who's boss!


Above is a Speedrun attempt of the Arcade Version, beaten in under 10 minutes. Now I'm not the greatest UMK3 about in any way, and especially as the AI has to be tackled differently to a real opponent. I'm just happy I was able to beat the game in that time.

I was extremely lucky against Shao Kahn, he definitely should have killed me after the blocked teleport. Happy days!

My challenge to TYM is to beat this time! Use whatever character you like to beast the Arcade mode with, and do the best you can to top it. This time is easily improvable, so you should be able to use any manor of techniques to achieve this. Or you could always just copy my methods, or just do the same thing with Robo Smoke :DOGE

For those that are unfamiliar with Speedrunning, here's the gist of it:

What is Speedrunning? - Speedrunning a game is to get to the end as quickly as possible. There are many categories of which this can be done, but the most popular way is to simply get to the ending credits. That's usually what is considered as the "end" of the game. You can use any manor of exploits or glitches to achieve this, which can sometimes make for some incredible viewing.

The current World Record for Ocarina Of Time is 18:10 for example.


Here's a few notes about how I achieved this time, and how I tackled the AI opponents, for those that aren't sure what's actually going on. There's a lot more to it than meets the eye.

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UMK3 is considered to be extremely difficult, and the harder difficulties are considered near impossible at times, especially to the casual player. However, there are ways to manipulate the way the AI counters each move the player throws out.

The AI's horrific Move Reading - Each time the player does a specific move, the game tells your opponent to do a certain move of their own that will instantly counter whatever you've just done. For example, Jade will instantly activate her projectile immune glow and sprint towards you whenever you use a projectile against her. It's stuff like this that no doubt made us the angry, rage filled men and women that we are today.

The way you effectively dismantle each AI opponent is to give them a move they can move read with, but then instantly use a different move to punish it. What you can see in this run is Sektors Teleport Uppercut being used to counter all of their projectile attacks, as the AI is set to throw a projectile if you do a kick whilst in the air.

In terms of speedrunning this game:

Getting a Flawless Victory isn't actually a good thing - It takes extra time for the "Flawless Victory" sign to appear on screen, so getting hit by something tiny like a jab will result in the match ending much faster. It's not worth the trade if the ai hits you with something that takes longer though.

The crappy AI are far worse to deal with than the good AI - The AI at the beginning is actually the most inconsistent, considering they're set to be slightly "easier" to fight, their move reading is less extreme. This of course is not what you want when trying to force the AI into doing something very specific at all times.

Some characters are possible to attack while they get off the ground, and some are not - You will notice that I constantly loop the jump back kick/Tele Uppercut some characters, but I attack others. This is because all the AI opponents behave differently when the player jumps in on their wakeup after a knockdown. All the Human Ninjas will instantly neutral jump into a full combo, as will Jax and Liu Kang. Others will occasionally throw you before the move connects, like Kung Lao and Sindel. The characters you can usually jump in against with Sektor after a knockdown are Stryker, Unmasked Sub Zero, Nightwolf, Sheeva, Jade/Kitana/Mileena, Cyrax/Smoke/Sektor and Kabal. The difference is that Sektor can only connect a JIP, HK,HK against the female Ninjas, but he can get a full 5 hit (JIP, HP,HP,HK,BHK) off the rest.

Against the Boss Characters, there seems to be a heavy random factor to them. But here's how I approached each Boss Fight:

Motaro - Motaro is harder than Shao Kahn in some ways, as he's far more inconsistent. Only Sektor's HK,HK combo will connect, as his other strings will wiff on hit, resulting in Motaro getting a free grab. I eventually learned to pick up a feel for when Motaro will do one of his random attacks, and jump in accordingly. This is always risky, as a projectile will hit me guaranteed, and I must block any other projectiles he may shoot in a sequence. He can also teleport, which will make any jump in normal of mine wiff once again. Eventually, you have to be fortunate enough that Motaro does his easy to hit moves, rather than the ones that will always hit you guaranteed. As speed is the goal here, you don't have time to wait around.

Shao Kahn - The eternal Run Killer. There's a few things to mention against this boss battle.

All your combos will fully connect against Shao Kahn, but he's set to use his projectile is the player throws their own. So using your projectile as he stands will still activate that in his AI, giving you a free hit as he rises from the ground. In this video, I used a homing Missile to activate his projectile, then used a straight missile which would hit immediately after. Comboing him with HP,HP,LP launches, giving me a guaranteed Homing Missile/Straight Missile. This does more damage in the long run, as any strings used against Shao Kahn will do reduced damage as he's a boss character.

Shao Kahn's Special Moves are completely random. This means that you have to crouch without blocking, and block on reaction to a charge. This can be extremely difficult if he's right in your face, as it takes a small moment to actually enter your blocking state. You can crouch his projectiles and run in with a full combo if you're close enough, but a charge at that range is almost guaranteed to hit you. Crouching at sweep distance will always make his rising knee miss, but sektor cant punish that move very hard, so I go for the homing missile once again.

Once Shao Kahn corners you, you have to allow yourself to get hit, otherwise you'll be in constant blockstun. If he lands a charge in the corner, you can run in and combo him before the shoulder recovers.

That's all I can remember off the top of my head.

If anybody actually wants to give this a go, please post your results! Be a nice little bit of fun I think.

Have fun!

CURRENT TIMES:

MAME and Arcade wil be treated as different times, as the Toasty Skip is not possible on a Cabinet.

Arcade -
7:38:42 by RZR|CG Ketchup

MAME -
6:47:49 by RZR|CG Ketchup

8:24 by Patrick Maher - Cabinet:


8:07 by YourMKArcadeSource - Cabinet:


6:47 by RZR|CG Ketchup - MAME:


8:56 by NWO - Kung Lao - MAME:


7:44 by Parallax MKChile - MAME:


6:56 by ZAQ - MAME:


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Will upload everyone's times, just throw a video my way!
 
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nwo

Noob
The Robo Smoke / Sektor teleport uppercut is probably the best move to rape the AI as fast as possible. Way before I found out that you could play UMK3 online I remember blowing through the game with Robo Smoke and thinking I was good. LOL

I think I could do around 10 minutes, give or take 30 seconds, using Kung Lao.
 

YourMKArcadeSource

Your Source For All Things MK Arcade Related
When you select either Master Tower/Tier, the game automatically goes to Very Hard. Also, your time should only run during your actual game play. During the time when your character is unplayable, the timer shouldn't be running. It should start as soon as you can move and stop as soon as you deliver the last hit of the match.
 
E

Eldriken

Guest
I was actually the referee doing the time keeping for this run. We didn't record this run, but the previous world record of 8:28:72 we have on youtube:

*in Shao Kahn's voice* IMPRESSIVE!

I wish I knew the AI was exploitable like that back when this game was everywhere. I'd have loved to abuse the shit out of it with one quarter. =P
 

PND_Ketchup

"More deadly than the dawn"
I was actually the referee doing the time keeping for this run. We didn't record this run, but the previous world record of 8:28:72 we have on youtube:

That's awesome! I had no doubt that the record would have been set at GGA, you have some insanely good arcade players over there I hear.

Thanks bro :)
 
When you select either Master Tower/Tier, the game automatically goes to Very Hard. Also, your time should only run during your actual game play. During the time when your character is unplayable, the timer shouldn't be running. It should start as soon as you can move and stop as soon as you deliver the last hit of the match.
I think there needs to be a defined rule of when the speed run actually begins. When you select your character? When you get to the challenge towers? Or when the first match starts?
 

YourMKArcadeSource

Your Source For All Things MK Arcade Related
Well, if you just count the time that you are able to control your character, I just obliterated the record. The entire video from the time I pressed start to the time the "You Are The MK Champion" is over, is only 9:45. Stand by for a video....

EDIT: Using the stopwatch on my Iphone and only counting the time the character is controllable, preliminary run time is 6:29.4
 
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nwo

Noob
I think there needs to be a defined rule of when the speed run actually begins. When you select your character? When you get to the challenge towers? Or when the first match starts?
I'd say when you get to the tower selection. Since thats the first time you have control, character selection shouldnt count.
 
From the selection of smoke at the character select screen.... I just did 8:22 flat. There are a LOT of factors.
Who you get on endurance rounds makes a big difference.
The male ninjas, Lao, jax, subzero, and sindel (maybe more) can be 2-combo'd by smoke. Teleport uppercut, anti-air hi punch, jump kick, air throw. That does about 51%. The amount of characters that you get on the tower that are susceptible to that combo are crucial. Also, when you get motaro, morphing into human smoke, you can easily get a jump starter into four hit combo by crossing him up.
Kahn is easy Peazy once you get him in the air. You can get all fancy and combo him to death, or spear, pause, uppercut, rinse and repeat.
Time ended as soon as the screen went black and white.
 

nwo

Noob
I just did 9:36 with Lao, and I made a handful of errors. I think under 9:00 is very doable with Kung Lao.

EDIT: There is a mid-screen low punch glitch that I don't do. That's probably what @YourMKArcadeSource is about to post. Just a guess lol.
 

YourMKArcadeSource

Your Source For All Things MK Arcade Related
On the one I just did, from selecting the character to the final blow on Shao Khan was 8:57

I just did 9:36 with Lao, and I made a handful of errors. I think under 9:00 is very doable with Kung Lao.

EDIT: There is a mid-screen low punch glitch that I don't do. That's probably what @YourMKArcadeSource is about to post. Just a guess lol.
Nope.
 

YourMKArcadeSource

Your Source For All Things MK Arcade Related
Well, I got a little overzealous. It looks like the way GGA times the run is from the moment the character is selected to the final blow upon Shao Khan. The video I did was 8:57. I thought they times it differently. Sorry. I'll try again.